Allen Miller has two claim tickets for instruments at a Plano music store that he worries are useless.

REX C. CURRY/Special Contributor

Fortunately for Katie Rifkin (left), she has more than one flute. Her mother, Debbie, dropped off one to a Holze Music store in December, and it's still not back.

Brass instruments that Mr. Miller says he inherited from his father are locked inside a Holze Music Bandstand store on West Parker Road. Mr. Miller took the instruments to the store, located in a shopping center, in early March for cleaning and tuning so his son could use them.

But when he went to pick up the instruments more than a month ago, a "closed for inventory" sign was in the store window. And weeks later, a notice from the shopping center's property manager appeared. The locks had been changed for failure to pay rent.

Lewisville and Frisco Bandstand stores also are closed, with similar notices posted on their doors.

Holze provides musical instruments and equipment for rental or purchase. Some area schools are customers.

Rob Gibson, owner of Holze Music, said his company grew too fast.

"We literally had more business than we could do," Mr. Gibson said by e-mail this week. "We are working with an investor and should have some positive news on that soon."

Mr. Gibson said he plans to reopen all the Dallas-area stores, but he couldn't project when.

The Waco-based company opened its Dallas-area stores in 2006 and 2007, around the time Brook Mays, a major provider of musical instruments, closed its North Texas stores. Dozens of schools, including ones in Plano, Lewisville and Garland, are listed on the company's Web site under "rental and music supplies."

But Holze has had financial problems.

The state comptroller seized its Waco store's assets in April because the company was delinquent in paying taxes. R.J. DeSilva, a spokesman for the state comptroller, said the state cleared Holze to reopen the Waco store last week after its tax debt was paid. He said state officials had nothing to do with the Dallas-area store closings.

At least eight instruments brought in for repairs are inside the Plano store. Several belong to Plano families and four belong to Plano schools.

"We do not know when they will be returned," Plano schools spokeswoman Nancy Long said in an e-mail.

Dave Spirnak, property manager for the shopping center where the Bandstand store is located, said he would like to reunite owners with their instruments, but he can't risk the liability of not making a correct match.

"If a representative from their company came, I could let them inside the store," Mr. Spirnak said.

The carpet inside the Plano store is littered with letters from instrument owners. Making calls to the store has been useless for some – the voice mailbox has been full.

"If I had to get a lawyer, I would lose the value of the horn," Nancy Milliken said of her son's $1,200 trumpet. "I just want to pick it up and get it out of there."

If she doesn't retrieve the trumpet soon, Ms. Milliken said she'll be forced to buy another for her son to use during his senior year at Plano West Senior High School.

Ms. Milliken pleaded for help last month in a letter slipped in the store. Mr. Miller also slipped a letter into the store and then went to police.

"They advised me to submit a certified letter," he said, adding that he mailed it this week.

Debbie Rifkin said she dropped off her daughter's flute in December and told the repairman that she wouldn't need it until April, when she planned to sell it to a beginner student. Her daughter has another flute that she uses.

"This is just too long," Ms. Rifkin said of the wait. "I feel sorry for the people who really need their instruments now."

The Mesquite school district contracted with Holze for equipment rentals. Ian Halperin, spokesman for Mesquite schools, said the district was awaiting delivery of some instruments and had to go elsewhere for the equipment.

"They strung us along for a while," Mr. Halperin said of Holze in an e-mail. "At this point, our band directors would not recommend them."

Mr. Gibson, Holze's owner, said he regrets the problems his company has caused and called it "a trying time."

"It grieves me that we have not been able to give our accounts the service they deserve," he wrote. "We still believe that music retail and music education share a partnership. Neither can survive without the other."

Staff writer Staci Hupp contributed to this report.